Whether or not May 15th will be the day when something comes close to earth or not isn't the concern of this study for, as I said, I don't know about the date. What I DO believe is that something IS scheduled to make a near approach to earth. After reading and studying Velikovsky's work for the last decade I have become more and more convinced that it is just a matter of time, and during my lifetime, that the earth will witness another close encounter with some large object, whether comet or planet, which will inaugurate the Day of the Lord and the end of the present age and the beginning of the Millennial Messianic Age. There are too many parallels between what is recorded in ancient history and what is recorded as future events in the book of Revelation to be just a coincidence—it takes more faith to believe that it won't happen than to believe it will.

Some questions:

what used to be in the asteroid belt?

why is the sun acting so strangely even after solar maximum has come and gone?

why is the weather so crazy? is it man-made or space age?

why so many close calls with asteroids lately? better data recording or cosmic push?

why all the hype for a May 15th Planet X encounter? where do they get this stuff?

is there anything out there heading our way? is it a comet, Planet X, Nibiru, Rahab, New Jerusalem, Satan's Hammer, Wormwood or a figment of someone's overactive imagination?

what happens if we're wrong?

____________________

White cult on the move as doomsday approaches

The expected arrival of the Panawave Laboratory doomsday cult in the normally tranquil Yamanashi Prefecture village of Oizumi has unsettled residents, as the motorcade of cultists continued to snake around central Japan on Friday.

The white-clad cult members, who were forced by police Thursday to leave Hachiman, Gifu Prefecture, where they had occupied a section of road for a week since April 25, made a short journey in their fleet of white vehicles and arrived at a neighboring village of Kiyomi in the predawn hours of Friday.

The dozens of cultists immediately covered crash barriers and trees alongside the road where they have parked their vehicles with white cloths, which they believe will protect them and their ailing guru from "harmful electromagnetic waves."

Local authorities have promptly demanded cult representative Keiichi Hasegawa to move out. The cult members are expected to move on from their latest stopover, which has put the residents of Oizumi, their likeliest final destination, on full alert.

In Oizumi, Panawave Laboratory members are constructing dome-shaped structures, which they claim to be resistant to any kind of natural disasters.

The cult's publications indicated that its members are convinced that the human race will be destroyed on May 15 this year because of a dramatic change in the angles of the Earth's axis.

In response, the Oizumi Municipal Government set up a task force Friday to deal with the cult.

Eighty members of the task force were drawn from local assembly members as well as representatives from Oizumi villagers. They will hold their first meeting on Saturday.

"All of us will work together to get rid of them if they do come to our village," Akira Kobayashi, a deputy mayor of Oizumi, said.

Meanwhile, the discovery of a mysterious white van in the Tokyo suburb of Chofu prompted residents to alert police.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle has been parked at a parking lot in the city's Jindaiji district for the past couple of weeks.

Although there was no one was inside the van, the interior was all painted prompting police to investigate whether the vehicle, which bears number plates issued in Okayama, is related to the Panawave cult. (Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports,
May 2, 2003)

The papyrus is written on both sides. The face (recto) and the back
(verso) are differentiated by the direction of the fiber tissues; the story
of Ipuwer is written on the face, on the back
is a hymn to a deity. A facsimile copy of both texts was published by the
authorities of the museum together with other Egyptian documents. The text
of Ipuwer is now bolded into a book of seventeen
pages, most of them containing fourteen lines of hieratic signs (a flowing
writing used by the scribes, quite different from pictorial hieroglyphics).
Of the first page only a third -- the left or last part of eleven lines
-- is preserved; pages 9 to 16 are in veery bad condition -- there are but
a few lines at the top and bottom of the pages -- and of the seventeenth
page only the beginning of the first two lines remains.

In 1909 the text, translated anew, was published by Alan H. Gardiner
under the title,The Admonitions of an Egyptian
Sage from a Hieratic Papyrus in Leiden. Gardiner argued that
all the internal evidence of the text points to the historical character
of the situation. Egypt was in distress; the social system had become disorganized;
violence filled the land. Invaders preyed upon the defenceless population;
the rich were stripped of everything and slept in the open, and the poor
took their possessions. "It is no merely local disturbance that is
here described, but a great and overwhelming national disaster."

Gardiner... interprets the text as though the words of a sage name
Ipuwer were directed to some king, blaming
him for inactivity which has brought confusion, insecurity, and suffering
to the people. "The Almighty", to whom Ipuwer
directs his words, is a customary appellation of great gods. Because the
introductory passages of the papyrus, where the author and his listeners
would be likely to be mentioned, are missing, the presence of the king
listening to the sage is assumed on the basis of the preferred form of
certain other literary examples of the Middle Kingdom. In accordance with
this interpretation, the papyrus containing the words of Ipuwer
is called, in the Gardiner edition, Admonitions
of an Egyptian Sage.

____________________

Egypt in Upheaval

The Papyrus Ipuwer is not a collection
of proverbs... or riddles; no more is it a literary prophecy... or an admonition
concerning profound social changes. It is the Egyptian version of a great
catastrophe.

The papyrus is a script of lamentations, a description of ruin and
horror.

PAPYRUS 2:8 Forsooth, the land turns round as does a potter's
wheel.

2:11 The towns are destroyed. Upper Egypt has become dry (wastes?).

3:13 All is ruin!

7:4 The residence is overturned in a minute.

4:2 ... Years of noise. There is no end to noise.

What do "noise" and "years of noise" denote?
The translator wrote: "There is clearly some play upon the word
hrw (noise) here, the point of which is to us obscure."
Does it mean "earthquake" and "years of earthquake"?
In Hebrew the word raash signifies "noise", "commotion",
as well as "earthquake". Earthquakes are often accompanied by
loud sounds, subterranean rumbling and roaring, and this acoustic phenomenon
gives the name to the upheaval itself.

Apparently the shaking returned again and again, and the country
was reduced to ruins, the state went into sudden decline, and life became
unbearable.

Ipuwer says:

PAPYRUS 6:1 Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult
(uproar) be no more.

The noise and the tumult were produced by the earth. The royal residence
would be overthrown "in a minute" and left in ruins....

The papyrus of Ipuwer contains evidence
of some natural cataclysm accompanied by earthquakes and bears witness
to the appearance of things as they happened at that time.

I shall compare some passages from the Book of Exodus and from the
papyrus. As, prior to the publication of Worlds
in Collision and Ages in Chaos,
no parallels had been drawn between the Bible and the text of the PapyrusIpuwer, the translator of the papyrus could
not have been influenced by a desire to make his translation resemble the
biblical text.

PAPYRUS 2:5-6 Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere.

EXODUS 7:21 ... there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

This was the first plague.

PAPYRUS 2:10 The river is blood.

EXODUS 7:20 ... all the waters that were in the river were turned
to blood.

This water was loathsome, and the people could not drink it.

PAPYRUS 2:10 Men shrink from tasting -- human beings, and thirst
after water.

EXODUS 7:24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river
for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

The fish in the lakes and the river died, and worms, insects, and
reptiles bred prolifically.

EXODUS 7:21 ... and the river stank.

PAPYRUS 3:10-13 That is our water! That is our happiness! What
shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin!

The destruction in the fields is related in these words:

EXODUS 9:25 ... and the hail smote every herb of the field, and
brake every tree of the field.

PAPYRUS 4:14 Trees are destroyed.

6:1 No fruit nor herbs are found..

This portent was accompanied by consuming fire. Fire spread all over
the land.

EXODUS 9:23-24 ... the fire ran along the ground.... there was
hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous.

PAPYRUS 2:10 Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed
by fire.

The fire which consumed the land was not spread by human hand but
fell from the skies.

By this torrent of destruction, according to Exodus,

EXODUS 9:31-32 ... the flax and the barley was smitten; for the
barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled. But the wheat and the rye
were not smitten: for they were not grown up.

It was after the next plague that the fields became utterly barren.
Like the Book of Exodus (9:31-32 and 10:15), the papyrus relates that no
duty could be rendered to the crown for wheat and barley; and as in Exodus
7:21 ("And the fish that was in the river died"), there was no
fish for the royal storehouse.

PAPYRUS 10:3-6 Lower Egypt weeps... The entire palace is without
its revenues. To it belong (by right) wheat and barley, geese and fish.

The fields were entirely devastated.

EXODUS 10:15 ... there remained not any green thing in the trees,
or in the herbs of the fields, through all the land of Egypt.

PAPYRUS 6:3 Forsooth, grain has perished on every side.

5:12 Forsooth, that has perished which yesterday was seen. The
land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax.

The statement that the crops of the fields were destroyed in a single
day ("which yesterday was seen") excludes drought, the usual
cause of a bad harvest; only hail, fire, or locusts could have left the
fields as though after "the cutting of flax". The plague is described
in Psalms 105:34-35 in these words: "... the locusts came, and caterpillars,
and that without number. And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and
devoured the fruit of their ground."

PAPYRUS 6:1 No fruit nor herbs are found... hunger.

The cattle were in a pitiful condition.

EXODUS 9:3 ... the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle which
is in the field... there shall be a very grievous murrain.

PAPYRUS 5:5 All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan....

Hail and fire made the frightened cattle flee.

EXODUS 9:19 .. gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the
field...

21 And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants
and his cattle in the field.

PAPYRUS 9:2-3 Behold, cattle are left to stray, and there is
none to gather them together. Each man fetches for himself those that are
branded with his name.

The ninth plague, according to the Book of Exodus, covered Egypt
with profound darkness.

EXODUS 10:22 ... and there was a thick darkness in all the land
of Egypt.

PAPYRUS 9:11 The land is not light....

"Not light" is in Egyptian equivalent to "without
light" or "dark". But there is some question as to whether
the two sentences are entirely parallel. The years of wandering in the
desert are described as spent in gloom under a cover of thick clouds....

____________________

The Last Night before the Exodus

According to the Book of Exodus, the last night the Israelites were
in Egypt was a night in which death struck instantly and took victims from
every Egyptian home. The death of so many in a single night, even at the
same hour of midnight, cannot be explained by a pestilence, which would
last more than a single hour. The story of the last plague does seem like
a myth; it is a stranger in the sequence of the other plagues, which can
be explained...

...Apparently we have before us the testimony of an Egyptian witness
of the plagues.

On careful reading of the papyrus, it appeared that the slaves were
still in Egypt when at least one great shock occurred, ruining houses and
destroying life and fortune. It precipitated a general flight of the population
from the cities, while the other plagues probably drove them from the country
into the cities.

The biblical testimony was reread. It became evident that it had
not neglected this most conspicuous event: it was the tenth plague.

In the papyrus it is said: "The residence is overturned in a
minute." On a previous page it was stressed that only an earthquake
could have overturned and ruined the royal residence in a minute. Sudden
and simultaneous death could be inflicted on many....

EXODUS 12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his
servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt: for
there was not a house where there was not one dead.

A great part of the people lost their lives in one violent shock.
Houses were struck a furious blow.

EXODUS 12:27 [The Angel of the Lord] passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered
our houses.

The word nogaf for "smote" is used for a
violent blow, e.g. for thrusting with his horns by an ox.

The residence of the king and the palaces of the rich were tossed
to the ground, and with them the houses of the common people and the dungeons
of captives.

EXODUS 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that
sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon.

PAPYRUS 4:3, and 5:6 Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed
against the walls.

6:12 Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets.

PAPYRUS 6:3 The prison is ruined.

2:13 He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere.

To it correspond Exodus 12:30:

... there was not a house where there was not one dead.

In Exodus 12:30 it is written:

... there was a great cry in Egypt.

To it corresponds the papyrus 3:14:

It is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with lamentations.

The statues of the gods fell and broke in pieces: "this
night... against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment"
(Exodus 12:12).

A book by Artapanus, no longer extant, which quoted some unknown
ancient source and which in its turn was quoted by Eusebius, tells of "hail
and earthquake by night [of the last plague], so that those who fled from
the earthquake were killed by the hail, and those who sought shelter from
the hail were destroyed by the earthquake. And at that time all the houses
fell in, and most of the temples."

The earth was equally pitiless towards the dead in their graves:
the sepulchers opened, and the buried were disentombed.

PAPYRUS 4:4, also 6:14 Forsooth, those who were in the place
of embalmment are laid on the high ground.

____________________

Revolt and Flight

The description of disturbances in the Papyrus
Ipuwer, when compared with the scriptural narrative, gives a strong
impression that both sources relate the very same events. It is therefore
only natural to look for mention of revolt among the population, of a flight
of wretched slaves from this country visited by disaster, and of a cataclysm
in which the pharaoh perished.

Although in the mutilated papyrus there is no explicit reference
to the Israelites or their leaders, three facts are clearly described as
consequences of the upheaval: the population revolted; the wretched or
the poor men fled; the king perished under unusual circumstances....

PAPYRUS 4:2 Forsooth, great and small say: I wish I might die.

5:14f. Would that there might be an end of men, no conception,
no birth! Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult be no more!

The escaped slaves hurried across the border of the country. By day
a column of smoke went before them in the sky; by night it was a pillar
of fire.

EXODUS 13:21 ... by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them
the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by
day and night.

PAPYRUS 7:1 Behold, the fire has mounted up on high. Its burning
goes forth against the enemies of the land.

The translator added this remark: "Here the 'fire' is regarded
as something disastrous."

After the first manifestations of the protracted cataclysm the Egyptians
tried to bring order into the land. They traced the route of the escaped
slaves. The wanderers became "entangled in the land, the wilderness
hath shut them in" (Exodus 14:3). They turned to the sea, they stood
at Pi-ha-Khiroth. "The Egyptians pursued after them. The Egyptians
marched after them." A hurricane blew all the night and the sea fled.

In a great avalanche of water "the sea returned to his strength",
and "the Egyptians fled against it". The sea engulfed the chariots
and the horsemen, the pharaoh and all his host.

The Papyrus Ipuwer (7:1-2) records only
that the pharaoh was lost under unusual circumstances "that have never
happened before". The Egyptian wrote his lamentations, and even in
the broken lines they are perceptible:

39. PRE 52. On the "seven great miracles," of which the stand-still of the sun is one, see note 272 on vol. I, p. 291.

40. PRE 52, and comp. vol. III, p. 61. Opinions differ as to how long the sun stood still; see 'Abodah Zarah 25a; Targum Hab. 3.11, according to the reading of Mahzor Vitry 171; Shu'aib, Bereshit (end). The miracle took place on a summer's day in the month of Tammuz; comp. Seder 'Olam 11; Aggadat Esther 29.

43. Tan. B. III, 68; Tan. Ahare 9. On the conception that the praise of God rendered by the pious might take the place of the song chanted by nature to the glory of God, see DR 11.5, and note 947 on vol. III, p. 471.

44.Yashar Joshua, 135b-136a. As during the war for the defence of the Gibeonites a great miracle was wrought for Joshua, so also later in his war against the united kings of Canaan (see Josh. 11), when the enemies of Israel at the prayer of Joshua "became still as a stone"; Mekilta Shirah 9, 43a. Comp. note 515 on vol. III, p. 269.

____________________

Periodic collapses of the firmament

They said; "Once
every 1656 years (296) the heavens convulse as He did in the days of the Flood. Come, let us make supports for
it. (297)

[The same Rabbis also discuss the following:] And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jashar. What is the book of Jashar?  Said R. Hiyya b. Abba in the name of R. Johanan: It is the book of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,1 who are designated as righteous,2 as it is said, Let me die the death of the righteous:3 And where is this incident hinted at [in Genesis]?  And his seed shall fill the nations:4 When shall [Ephraim's fame] reach the nations? When the sun shall stand still for Joshua. And the sun stayed in the midst of the heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day.5 How long [is day-time said to have lasted]?  Said R. Joshua b. Levi: Twenty four hours: [The sun] moved for six hours and stood still for six, then it moved for six and stood still for six, then it moved for six and stood still for six; the whole incident equalled a whole day.

R. Eleazar said: Thirty-six hours; it moved for six hours and stood still for twelve, it then moved for six and stood still for twelve so that the halt alone equalled a whole day. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: Forty-eight; it moved for six and stood for twelve, it then moved for six and stood still for twenty-four, for Scripture says, and hasted not to go down about a whole day, which implies that the previous halt did not equal a whole day. Some report that it is the additional hours of daytime which are disputed. R. Joshua b. Levi said: They were twenty-four; it moved for six and stood for twelve, then moved for six and stood for twelve  its halt thus equalled a whole day; while R. Eleazar said: Thirty-six; it moved for six and stood for twelve, then moved for six and stood for twenty-four [which is meant by] and hasted not to go down about a whole day. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: Forty-eight; it moved for six and stood for twenty-four, then moved for six and again stood for twenty-four; the standing still [at noon] equalled that of setting time; as the one at setting time equalled a whole day, so the standing still [in the midst of the heaven] equalled a whole day.

A Tanna taught:6 Just as the sun stood still for Joshua, so did the sun stand still for Moses and for Nakdimon b. Gorion. [As to the case of] Joshua, there are the scriptural verses; [that of] Nakdimon b. Gorion is a tradition;7 whence do we know about Moses?  It may be derived from the identical [expression] I will begin [used in the two cases]. Here is written, I will begin to put the dread of thee,8 and there, referring to Joshua, it is written, I will begin to magnify thee.9 R. Johanan10 said: It may be derived from the use of the identical word teth11 ['put'] [in both cases]. Here is written, I will begin to put the dread of thee,12 and there, concerning Joshua, it is written, In the day when the Lord put the Amorites.13 R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: You can detect it in the very wording of the verse itself, [The peoples that are under the whole heaven] who shall hear the report of thee, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee:14 When did they tremble and were in anguish because of Moses? When the sun stood still for him.

The question was asked: [Does not Scripture say in the case of Joshua] And there was no day like that before it or after it?15 [The answer given was,] You may explain this [to mean that] there was none that lasted as long as that one; or, if you wish, you may say it means that there were no hailstones [as in the case of Joshua], of which it is written, And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, while they were in the going down of Beth-Horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azeka and they died.16

'Hailstones [abne elgabish]'. What are 'abne elgabish'? A Tanna taught: Stones [abanim] which remained suspended for the sake of a man ['al gab ish] and came down for the sake of a man. 'They remained suspended for the sake of a man': this was Moses, of whom it is written, Now the man Moses was very meek,5 and it is also written, And the soldiers and hail ceased, and the rain poured not upon the earth.6 'They came down for the sake of a man': this was Joshua, of whom it is written, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom there is spirit,7 and it is written, And it came to pass as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-Horon, that the Lord cast down great stones.8

Thus did God proceed against the Egyptians. First He cut off their water supply by turning their rivers into blood. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He sent the noisy, croaking frogs into their entrails. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He
brought lice against them, which pierced their flesh like darts. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He sent barbarian legions
against them, mixed hordes of wild beasts. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He brought slaughter upon them, a very
grievous pestilence. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He poured out naphtha over them, burning blains. They refused to
let the Israelites go, and He caused His projectiles, the hail, to descend upon them. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He
placed scaling-ladders against the wall for the locusts, which climbed them like men of war. They refused to let the Israelites go,
and He cast them into dungeon darkness. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He slew their magnates, their first-born
sons

BBSNews - 2003-04-01 -- The Universe clearly works weekends; delivering one of the brightest and closest gamma ray
bursts yet on Saturday, March 29, at 6:37 a.m. EST.

NASA's High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) detected the burst, signaling the birth of a black hole, in the constellation Leo.
For more than 30 seconds, the burst out shone the entire Universe in gamma rays, and its afterglow was still over a trillion
times brighter than the sun two hours later. This was the brightest burst yet detected by HETE and is in the top one percent
of all bursts in terms of intrinsic brightness. Within seconds, HETE nailed down a location and subsequently relayed the
coordinates to the astronomy community, allowing hundreds of scientists and amateur astronomers to join the observation,
from Australia to Finland and across the ocean to America. Observations continue to pour in as scientists attempt to unravel
what caused the burst. The region is still too bright to determine which galaxy this burst came from.

"This was our biggest one ever, and it didn't get away," said Dr. George Ricker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Cambridge, Mass., and principal investigator for the HETE mission. "With scores of observations now completed and
more on the way, we should get a rather clear picture of what triggered this burst."

Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the Universe; likely caused by the death of a massive star, in which
the core implodes to form a black hole. Bursts appear to occur randomly, and few last more than a minute, making them
hard to study.

HETE detects the fleeting gamma ray and X-ray portions of these bursts, and its prompt localization enables scientists to
study the burst afterglow, which can linger from days to weeks in optical light and radio waves. Most bursts originate in the
early universe, traveling upwards of 10 billion years at light speed to reach us.

The burst on March 29 was named GRB 030329. Both the burst and its afterglow were brilliant. The burst poured out a
thousand trillion, trillion times the gamma rays seen in a solar flare. When measured more than one hour after the burst,
the afterglow was still about as bright as a 12th magnitude star. This means it was only about 10 to 100 times dimmer than
what can be seen with the naked eye, visible with backyard telescopes. At its peak, the afterglow may have been visible to
the naked eye.

The burst originated approximately two billion light years from Earth, which is relatively close. The GRB 030329 redshift
measurement was 0.168, making this the second closest burst with a known redshift measurement. (Redshift is a
measurement of how light from distant regions of the Universe is "shifted" to lower energy as the Universe expands; the
greater the redshift, the greater the distance from Earth.) "Few amateur astronomers are treated to an event that originated
billions of light years away," said Ricker.

EARTH'S LITTLE BROTHER FOUND
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC
October 21, 2002

Astronomers have discovered the first object ever that is in a companion
orbit to the Earth.

Asteroid 2002 AA29 is only about 100 metres wide and never comes closer than
3.6 million miles to our planet.

But it shares the Earth's orbit around the Sun, at first on one side of the
Earth and then escaping to travel along our planet's path around the Sun
until it encounters the Earth from the other side. Then it goes back again.

Researchers are speculating that 2002 AA29 could be visited by astronauts or
used to understand the threat to our planet posed by such rocks from space.

2002 AA29 was discovered by the linear automated sky survey project on 9
January 2002.

Martin Connors of Athabaseca University in Canada writes in the journal
Meteoritics and Planetary Science that it, "moves in a very Earth-like
orbit," and is the "first true co-orbital object of Earth."

General Simon Worden of the United States Space Command described it as a
"near Earth object that is close to being trapped by the Earth as a second
natural satellite".

According to Helena Morais of the University of Lisbon and Allesandro
Morbidelli of the University of Nice, writing in a paper to be published in
the journal, Icarus: "2002 AA29 seems to be in a temporary horseshoe-like
orbit with the Earth."

This puts 2002 AA29 is in the same class as 3753 Cruithne, a similar rocky
body in a horseshoe orbit around the Earth.

But astronomers classify 2002 AA29 as the first real co-orbital body found
associated with the Earth because it more completely shares the Earth's path
around the Sun.

Co-orbiting asteroids have been found around other planets.

Over 1,200 so called "Trojans" have been found moving either ahead or behind
Jupiter.

Eight such objects have been found associated with Mars.

But despite detailed searches no one has yet found any Trojan objects near
the Earth.

It is clear that 2002 AA29 was discovered by accident at a time when it was
at one end of its horseshoe orbit and, being at its closest to the Earth,
was bright enough to be detected in an automated sky survey.

Detailed observations of its trajectory through space show that 2002 AA29
will reach its minimum close approach to the Earth -- 12 times the distance
between Earth and the Moon -- at 1900 GMT on 8 January 2003.

Thereafter it will travel ahead of the Earth moving faster than our planet
does, until after 95 years it will catch up with the other side of the Earth
and then reverse its motion.

Analysis of 2002 AA29's motions have revealed a remarkable event that
happens to it every few thousand years.

In 550AD, and again in 2600AD and 3880AD, for a while it will become a true
satellite of our planet, in effect Earth's second moon, although technically
it will remain under the gravitational control of the Sun.

It remains a second moon to Earth for about 50 years until it escapes.

Although only about 100 metres across 2002 AA29 may play a role in the
manned exploration of space out of all proportion to its size.

Already researchers are speculating that it could be visited by an unmanned
spaceprobe or even become the first object after the Moon to be stepped on
by astronauts.

The object could tell us a lot about the composition of asteroids.

Some have speculated that it could be nudged into a permanent Earth orbit
where it could be studied at greater length.

The latest analysis of the mysterious object called J002E3 suggests it could
well be a leftover Saturn V rocket component from one of the Apollo lunar
missions.

The suspicious, fast-moving object was discovered on 3 September by Bill
Yeung from his observatory in Arizona, US. Initial orbit calculations
indicated that it was only about twice as far away as the Moon, and in orbit
around the Earth.

At first, astronomers were not sure whether the object was a passing chunk
of rock that was captured by the Earth's gravity, or a piece of space junk.

Now the mystery may have been solved thanks to a retrospective analysis of
its movement through space. The object is most likely from the Apollo 12
mission, launched on 14 November 1969.

Returned to sender

It seems that the object was in orbit around the Sun until April of this
year when it was captured by the Earth's gravity. The capture occurred when
the object passed near the Earth's L1 Lagrange point, a region of space
where the gravity of the Earth and Sun approximately cancel.

J002E3 is the first known case of an object being captured by the Earth,
although Jupiter has been known to capture comets in the same way.

The most recent analysis of J002E3's pre-capture orbit about the Sun shows
that it was always inside the Earth's orbit, and that it may have come
within the Earth's vicinity in the early 1970s or late 1960s.

This suggests that J002E3 was very likely orbiting the Earth during this
period before escaping into solar orbit.

Experts say that it is likely that this object is one of the Apollo Saturn
rocket's third stages. The brightness of J002E3 seems to match the expected
brightness of such a component.

Analysis of J002E3's orbit suggests that there is a chance of it impacting
the Moon in 2003, and an outside possibility of it burning up in the Earth's
atmosphere sometime in the next decade or so.

A "freeway" through the solar system resembling a vast array of virtual
winding tunnels and conduits around the Sun and planets, discovered by an
engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., can slash
the amount of fuel needed for future space missions.

Called the Interplanetary Superhighway, the system was calculated by Martin
Lo, who used his theory to design the flight path for NASA's Genesis
mission, which is currently using this "freeway in space" on its mission to
collect solar wind particles for return to Earth.

Most missions are designed to take advantage of the way gravity pulls on a
spacecraft when it swings by a body such as a planet or moon. Lo's theory
mixes in another factor, the Sun's pull on the planets or a planet's pull on
its nearby moons. Forces from many directions nearly cancel each other out,
leaving paths through the gravity fields in which spacecraft can travel.

Each planet and moon has five locations in space called Lagrange points,
where one body's gravity balances another's. Spacecraft can orbit there
while burning very little fuel. To find the Interplanetary Superhighway, Lo
mapped all the possible flight paths among the Lagrange points, varying the
distance the spacecraft would go and how fast or slow it would travel. Like
threads twisted together to form a rope, the possible flight paths formed
tubes in space. Lo plans to map out these tubes for the whole solar system.

Lo has turned the theory of the Interplanetary Superhighway into a tool for
mission design called "LTool," using models developed at Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Ind. The new LTool designed the flight path for the Genesis
mission, the first space mission to use the theory of the Interplanetary
Superhighway. Genesis launched in August 2001.

The flight path was designed for the spacecraft to leave Earth and travel to
orbit the Lagrange point. After five loops around this Lagrange point, the
spacecraft will fall out of orbit without any maneuvers and then loop around
Earth to a Lagrange point on the opposite side of the planet. Finally, it
will return to Earth's upper atmosphere to drop off its samples of solar
wind in the Utah desert, at the Air Force's Utah Testing and Training Range.

"Genesis wouldn't need to use any fuel at all in a perfect world," Lo said.
"But since we can't control the many variables that occur throughout the
mission, we have to make some corrections as Genesis completes its loops
around a Lagrange point of Earth. The savings on the fuel translates into a
better and cheaper mission."

"It has been exciting and challenging to develop this field. Our work on the
Genesis mission is definitely a high point," said Kathleen Howell,
co-creator of LTool, and a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at
Purdue. "The theory has been known for some time, but this is the first time
it has been applied to a space mission."

"For all missions going to a Lagrange point, LTool will speed up
computations," Lo said. "Designing the Genesis spacecraft's flight path with
traditional methods used to take eight weeks, but now we can design a new
flight path in less than a day -- we have redesigned a whole mission in a
week."

Lo envisions a place to construct and service science platforms around one
of the Moon's Lagrange points. Since the Lagrange points are landmarks for
the Interplanetary Superhighway, spacecraft could easily be shunted to and
from the station for repair. A team at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston,
working with the NASA Exploration Team (NEXT), proposes to someday use the
Interplanetary Superhighway for future human space missions.

"Lo's work has led to breakthroughs in simplifying mission concepts for
human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit," said Doug Cooke,
manager of the Advanced Development office at Johnson. "These
simplifications result in fewer space vehicles needed for a broad range of
mission options."

Lo's and Howell's work on the Interplanetary Superhighway for space mission
design was nominated for an annual Discover Innovation Award by Discover
magazine editors and an outside panel of experts.

Spacecraft are not the only users of the Interplanetary Superhighway:
asteroids and comets are known to travel on it. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
collided with Jupiter when it took an off-ramp toward the giant gas planet.
Scientists think the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs could have followed
Genesis' flight path -- an iridium deposit at the crash site shows the
asteroid traveled fairly slowly. Just what we might expect from an asteroid
on the Interplanetary Superhighway, Lo said.

SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating
meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the
mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years
ago.

Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a
two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears
all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it
would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with
the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.

Today's crater lies on what would have been shallow sea
4,000 years ago, and any impact would have caused
devastating fires and flooding.

The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery
of why so many early cultures went into sudden decline
around 2300 BC.

They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central
Iraq, with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon;
the end of the fifth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom,
following the building of the Great Pyramids and the sudden
disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy
Land.

Until now, archaeologists have put forward a host of
separate explanations for these events, from local wars to
environmental changes. Recently, some astronomers have
suggested that meteor impacts could explain such historical
mysteries.

The crater's faint outline was found by Dr Sharad Master, a
geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
on satellite images of the Al 'Amarah region, about 10 miles
north-west of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates and
home of the Marsh Arabs.

"It was a purely accidental discovery," Dr Master told The
Telegraph last week. "I was reading a magazine article about
the canal-building projects of Saddam Hussein, and there was
a photograph showing lots of formations - one of which was
very, very circular."

Detailed analysis of other satellite images taken since the
mid-1980s showed that for many years the crater contained a
small lake.

The draining of the region, as part of Saddam's campaign
against the Marsh Arabs, has since caused the lake to
recede, revealing a ring-like ridge inside the larger
bowl-like depression - a classic feature of meteor impact
craters.

The crater also appears to be, in geological terms, very
recent. Dr Master said: "The sediments in this region are
very young, so whatever caused the crater-like structure, it
must have happened within the past 6,000 years."

Reporting his finding in the latest issue of the journal
Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Dr Master suggests that a
recent meteor impact is the most plausible explanation for
the structure.

A survey of the crater itself could reveal tell-tale melted
rock. "If we could find fragments of impact glass, we could
date them using radioactive dating techniques," he said.

A date of around 2300 BC for the impact may also cast new
light on the legend of Gilgamesh, dating from the same
period. The legend talks of "the Seven Judges of Hell", who
raised their torches, lighting the land with flame, and a
storm that turned day into night, "smashed the land like a
cup", and flooded the area.

The discovery of the crater has sparked great interest among
scientists.

Dr Benny Peiser, who lectures on the effects of meteor
impacts at John Moores University, Liverpool, said it was
one of the most significant discoveries in recent years and
would corroborate research he and others have done.

He said that craters recently found in Argentina date from
around the same period - suggesting that the Earth may have
been hit by a shower of large meteors at about the same
time.

This book is absolutely chock full of scientific evidence that helps explain the earthly changes forecast in
the book of Revelation. All the natural phenomena related in the last book of the Bible finds its counterpart in the ancient earthly
record and is a matter of "been there, done that" as far as the earth is concerned. You can't explain away the residual evidence of
a cataclysmic event in the past so it's not too far-fetched to imagine it happening again. The most unbelievable aspect of this
research is that more people have not been exposed to it.

I would like to type all of the book "Worlds in Collision" and put it with the rest of the ebooks on the website but I know that would be a huge copyright violation. If anyone knows of how to get permission to do this, please email me.

7. Listen to http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/ radio program on Planet X. A few things to consider: he seems to have a huge chip on his shoulder and is having a war with NASA which he spends a lot of time talking about; his philosophy of life does not seem to include the Bible—seems to be a humanist who thinks people can change the world; he believes the Heaven's Gate people were murdered; secular commentary. I have his book "Planet-X, Comets & Earth Changes" but the jury is still out.

Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not
endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the
dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which
includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed
with a mature, discerning eye.